Bobby Moore, (12 April 1941- 24 February 1993) was one of the most gifted players in the history of world football.  Pele considered him ‘the greatest defender I ever played against’.  To Alf Ramsey he was, ‘My captain, my leader, my right-hand man. He was the spirit and the heartbeat of the team. A cool, calculating footballer I could trust with my life. He was the supreme professional, the best I ever worked with. Without him England would never have won the World Cup."   Jock Stein, a difficult man to impress, stated: ‘There should be a law against him. He knows what's happening 20 minutes before everyone else.’   Moore made his debut for West Ham United against Manchester United on 8 September 1958 at the age of seventeen.  He was to play 545 games for the club, leading them to their first-ever FA Cup win, over Preston North End in 1964, and the European Cup Winners' Cup the following year; in a 2-0 win over Munich 1860.   He made the senior England side in 1962 playing in that year's World Cup in Chile, when England lost to Brazil in the quarter-finals.   A year later, under Alf Ramsey, he became England's youngest-ever captain, leading his country in 90 of his 108 matches, equalling Billy Wright’s record.  In 1966 Moore led his team out at Wembley to their historic World Cup Final win against West Germany. His West Ham team-mate Geoff Hurst scored an historic hat-trick in the 4-2 win with Moore supplying pinpoint passes for two of his goals. The now iconic image of Moore holding the Jules Rimet trophy aloft at Wembley is one that has since been engrained on every football fan's memory   Four years later, he captained the defending champions in Mexico, England eventually going out to West Germany in the quarter-finals.   In the 1970s, after a series of disagreements with manager Ron Greenwood, Moore left West Ham to join Fulham and helped the team reach the 1975 FA Cup Final - ironically losing 2-0 to West Ham.  He ended his playing days in the United States, beforing going into management but with little success.  He died tragically young at the age of 51, in 1993, from bowel cancer.   In 2003 Moore was chosen by football fans nationwide as England's greatest player of the last fifty years.  Fellow legend Franz Beckenbauer said of him: ‘Bobby was my football idol. I looked up to him. I’m so proud to have played against him’.   In May 2007 a 20ft statue, weighing about two tons, was unveiled at the new Wembley Stadium.  Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in attendance, said: ‘If you want a role model in public life, Bobby Moore is a pretty good one to take. He was a true gentleman.’